hi there and thank you so much for being with me on this monday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. we are continuing our special coverage of what is now tropical storm irma after its 130 mile-an-hour winds tore through parts of florida. irma has now been downgraded, but is still barreling toward georgia, the carolinas and alabama. this hour, the city of charleston is at risk for flash floods. savannah is bracing for possible tornadoes, but as this storm pushes on, we are getting new images in of the devastation in florida. listen to this. more than 6 million people are

without power. it is high tide in jacksonville, bringing in a record breaking storm surge that is taking over major roadways. our cnn cameras capturing some of the first video of the florida keys and just when you look at all these pictures and the devastation is stunning. my colleague john berman is joining me for the next two hours live there in miami amid boat debris. it looks like down in coconut grove, john berman. i know you are in the thick of it during the 100 mile an hour winds last night. tell me about where you are today. >> reporter: it goes without saying, brooke, it's not supposed to look like this. we are outside of coconut grove outside a bar named monty's and it was just hammered in the storm. look at all of the boats around me, sail boat, motor boats, tipped over and just pushed up on to the shore by the storm surge and it wasn't just the storm surge. it was one of the larger boats that broke loose and pushed even more of the smaller boats up here, just tearing up the docks

and everything in its path. just a sign of what the storm surge here could do and the winds, you know, it was category 1 here in miami north of 75 miles an hour, not even as bad as they felt in some other parts of florida. still, miami today, a long way from getting back to normal. 60% of the traffic lights are out. 800,000 people in miami-dade still without power. it's coming back on in some places, but it will be a long haul for others. the schools in miami-dade and also in broward county north of here closed indefinitely, and as i give you those statistics for just this county, just keep in mind that it's not just here and up the east coast. it's the florida keys to the south of me and the west coast and the part of florida that just had to deal with the most imminent threat kalee hartung,

watching those floodwaters rage past you earlier, that was quite a sight. >> we appeared to lose kalee hartung in jacksonville. as i am standing here in miami talking about the destruction that hurricane irma caused here, a friend of mine in charleston, south carolina, texted me and showed me a picture of what's going on outside his window. charleston is getting hammered right now. joining us on the phone is the mayor of charleston, south carolina. mr. mayor, thank you so much for joining us right now. i just saw a photoof a boat pushed up onshore. give us an assessment of what you're seeing. >> thank you, john. we've got a lot of water here and it's counterintuitive that a

hurricane over in the western part of georgia would have a four-foot storm surge in charleston, south carolina, but that's exactly what is happening because the wind is pushing the water towards us and unfortunately, it happened right at high tide and and so right now high tide just passed and we had a low water level and so the battery was breached and many of our low-lying areas are experiencing flooding right now. >> i think we are all learning from hurricane irma of how shifty storm surges can be. it's often trailing a storm and it's often at the other end of a storm and it's a tough lesson to have to learn. mi friend, again, told me he was nervous that the flooding in charleston might be about the same as it was in hurricane hugo. that's a very, very scary level right now. do you get a sense of how much

damage there is? >> well, not yet. in comparison, i'll say last year hurricane matthew did not have as much flooding in our historic district and low-lying areas and that's because just the chance that matthew came into town at low tide rather than high tide so that six-foot tidal difference really makes a huge difference, but we're ready and prepared for recovery as soon as this thing passes and we're going to get cleaned up in short order and then we're going to welcome anyone from florida that wants to come up and visit. our hearts and prayers just go out for all of the damage and loss that's occurring down in florida and our neighbors and brothers and sisters down there. >> right back at you right now dealing with flooding in charleston that is still going on. we wish you the best going forward and we know that you,

too, will get the help you need to recover from it. again, staggering in miami from the flooding and storm surge here and the mayor of charleston dealing with it up there. i think we do have kayleigh hartung in jacksonville dealing with flooding that they haven't seen since the 1800s. kayleigh. >> reporter: nobody here has seen anything like this and the waters rolling into downtown and this is the definition of storm surge as we know it. the winds pushing the river into these streets. that's a marina right over me. the st. johns river dumping into downtown and we've been saying all morning long, as bad as it looked in jacksonville it will get worse and now we're at the hour we were looking towards, 2:00 high tide here and officials are saying waterings could rise eight inches more and those historic floods and those records keep breaking with every hour and it feels like with

every gust of wind, we felt gusts up to 70, 75 miles an hour and some that will knock you right off your fight and it has been surprising to me with every person i've seen here to speck tate like these folks to my left. they survived irma and they are very proud of it, john, but the most troubling i've seen are people actually wading through these waters and we spoke with a man earlier who waded for blocks with water up to his waist just because he wanted to experience what was going on downtown and thought that was the best vantage point to get it. we don't advise anyone to do such a thing because waters will continue to rise. that's the threat here. these gusts of wind aren't allowing anyone to be safe in these waters and as you said, you just don't know how quickly the scenario in here can change. i'm looking at a tree right here where i don't know from this vantage point we've got a good view of the roots and the second tree down here hanging on by its

roots and with the powerful gusts that we're feeling, any one of them could carry that right out. and what's also interesting about our location here right in the middle of downtown jacksonville, this is the omni hotel to my left. a lot of people from this area from jacksonville beach and ponte vedra, they came here to safety, john, but now these waters getting pretty close to the doors of that hotel as these waters continue to rise and the wind continues to blow. >> kaylee, please take care of yourself. people tried to go where they might be safe and it turned out to be another target for that storm. kayly hartung, please, folks, stay careful out there before this passes. i want to go over now to the west coast of florida to naples which took a really heavy hit from the eye of hurricane irma.

our team was all yesterday. you saw chris cuomo, literally in the eye of the storm for some time after being hit by 140 mile-an-hour winds. on the phone with me that was bill barnett, the mayor of naples and thank you so much for being with us, and i know it's hard to get a sense of just how bad the damage is. it does take some time, but i do hear you are finally having some data to tell us about. what have you learned? >> you know, and i'd like to make a really quick statement about people wading in hurricane waters just because they wanted the experience. >> i -- that doesn't make any sense. that's insane, but anyway -- the damage here that we've assessed so far is literally minor compared to what i've been listening to you and hearing about our neighbors over in miami up and in jacksonville, et cetera, but you know, ours was a

lot of down trees and flooding. we have neighbors that aren't open yet that you can't get to. our newly rebuilt pier that's only a couple of years old took a serious, structural hit and of course, adding the no power and everyone is in the same boat there, and it doesn't make it easier with the temperatures that we have here. not a lot of structural, very, very minimal, structural and water main -- water pipe breaks and water main breaks just -- you know, it's sad. in perspective, the fact that we did not get that storm surge because the back end of that storm dissipated, and that would have been catastrophic to us. so that's it in a nutshell. >> i've got to say, mayor. this is terrific news. this is the kind of news i've

been waiting to hear all day. a lot of us were very worried about what might have happened to naples with the severity, the storm surge was the major concern going in. you haven't seen any impact from that? is there any lingering water, flooding left over? >> well, we have some. sure. it was a little bit above normal, but it is receding and as i say, none of the business district streets were impacted and we are just -- we are fortunate, but yeah, we'll have water for a little while, but nothing -- nothing compared to what it could have been. >> mr. mayor, i am sure that a lot of the fact that naples is doing so well today had to do with the planning that went into it beforehand and all of the hard work, getting people and resources where they need to be so mayor bill barnett, thank you for your work. it's just starting and thank you for being with us right now, sir. >> thank you so much. bye.

all right. in the chaos of hurricane irma, and in the difficulty in assessing what happens after hurricane irma there were a lot of people in this state searching for their loved ones, trying to figure out if everything is okay. coming up, we'll hear from someone looking for two family members still here. stay with cnn's special live coverage of the aftermath of irma. i say aftermath. it's still hitting parts of the country very hard. mike and i are both veterans, both served in the navy.

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oh, there it goes! >> what? the tree? >> the whole thing came down. >> there it goes. we keep getting in all these different pictures and videos from all of you in the wake of irma. welcome back. you're watching special coverage. i'm brooke baldwin in new york. john berman standing by in mime pep tropical storm irma continues its watch northward moving toward the florida-georgia line. let's go to allison chinchar in the weather center and where is irma now and where is the real concern beyond florida here? >> at this concern, the next couple of hours will be from jacksonville up to charleston, south carolina. we still have a threat in this location. we still have the potential for severe weather in some of these looks and that's where the big threat is going to be right now.

however, some good news at least for jacksonville folks that have been experiencing the incredible amounts of rain. the good news is the majority of that rain is well out now. you should actually start to be seeing some clearing there in the short term which will allow folks to get out and assess some of the damage in those regions and begin the cleanup process. south of jacksonville as you go further south into florida. look at these rainfall totals that we had. nearly 16 inches in fort pierce, around naples and a foot of rain fell into georgia. as you cross over north from jacksonville and go into the southeastern portion of georgia. look at the rainfall and ten inches in kingsland. we've been talking about homeland at 8 inches of rain and some of those spots in georgia, it's still raining and those numbers likely to go back up and naples, florida, taking the wind gust of 142 miles per hour. marco island, 142 miles per hour. some locations may have had

higher numbers, but a lot of the weather stations in those looks broke. we don't have official data for those looks that could have potentially had higher wind gusts. here's a look at the radar. here is the heaviest rain at the moment. north of jacksonville, up toward savannah and charleston and that's where the heaviest bands of rain are occurring and we have flash floods here for the red boxes and they've been hitting the same spots over and over again. and again, just north of jacksonville as you get to savannah, charleston and wilmington, north carolina, this is where you have the main threats for severe weather that will be occurring today. damaging winds as well as the threat for tornadoes. we still have tropical storm warnings out, places like tallahassee and jacksonville. it also pushes further north because of the strong winds and even though the storm itself has weakened a little bit it's not gone entirely so you still have the potential for tropical storm-force winds for cities like savannah, even, brook, even

a big city like atlanta. >> i was talking to my parents last night about -- they're in atlanta, thinking about them and i think i saw 38,000 people out of power in savannah alone. allison, it's not over as you well know and the rest of us need that reminder. meantime, the florida keys took the brunt of hurricane irma's powerful winds and storm surge. instead evacuating some people decided to ride out the storm on boats in the florida keys, and now at least two of those individuals are missing. with me now on the phone joey fago. joey has an uncle and a cousin who decided to weather hurricane irma on a boat in marathon, florida, very, very close to where irma's eye wall passed by. joey, it's brooke. can you hear me? >> yes, i can. let's get right to your uncle and your cousin. when was the last time you heard from them? >> about 7:00 a.m. yesterday. >> 7:00 a.m. yesterday, and explain to me why they thought

it was a good idea to ride it out on a boat? >> well, they do live down in marathon and they're local fishermen. >> sure. >> so that is their home and they had some issues down there getting out and some issues with the boat and unfortunately, they couldn't leave at the time. >> couldn't leave at the time meaning what? >> they couldn't leave in time -- >> got it. >> so they were on the boat. what kind of boat are we talking about? how big? >> it's a 48-foot sport fishing boat. >> okay. >> and had they been down there through other learns? is this something they knew what to do? >> yes. >> my uncle's -- my uncle's 60 years old. he's a well-seasoned fisherman. he's been through all of the major storms. we know -- you know, he's very well versed and well educated in that. his son is younger and works with him. so they know what to do.

we just don't know what's going on down there. our biggest challenge is just trying to get in contact with them. we've got access to air and boat to get down there, but we can't get in there. the state has banned all ability for us to fly down there and the seas are too rough for a boat. >> which is, i'm sure, incredibly frustrating for you because you want to hear from, of course, your family members. have you been able to pick up the phone and call rescue crews or anyone who can give you an idea when or how a surge of the area could begin? >> we're working on all of that. the only update we have is the national guard is there and they're working their way from key largo down, but there's no communication back. i'm here with my whole family, my aunt who is my uncle's wife and her son. we're all here together just trying to figure out our next move. >> think. no, no.

forgive me for jumping in, when you talk about your aunt, now is everyone feeling about this? are they afraid? >> everyone is pretty good. we have a lot of confidence in uncle tom and joey, but you know, you don't know, but that's why we're trying to get down there. we need all of the resources we can get to get down there to try to rescue them and see who else is down there. i've reached out through my page on facebook to try to see who other people that are stuck down there so we can, you know, help them, as well. >> i've got you. you just need more information, and i'm sure you'll get it soon enough. i hear your confidence in both tom and joey. lastly, just to the people watching if they're in marathon, if they're able to reach out, i don't know, to you or are you on social media and maybe i can figure out a way to relay that so that if they know where they are, we'll get in touch.

i don't want you to give your phone number out on national tv, but we'll figure something out. joey fago, thank you very much, and we'll stay in close contact. >> if you could, please. >> yeah. >> i appreciate the time. anything you could do to just try to get it out there that we just need contact down there. ye need to get down there. they're blocking all access for us to get into the keys. so i'm sure we're not the only ones, but -- >> can you give me the name of the boat, just some sort of -- >> it's called marlin mahir. it's a 48-foot sport fishing boat with a tuna tower. it's a very large boat. >> got it. >> joey fago, we'll try to help you out. thank you so very much. we'll stay in close contact. thank you. coming up next here on cnn, we are now on the ground in one of the places that took the hardest hit. we will take you to the florida keys next. patrick woke up with back pain.

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all right. john berman back in miami surrounded by the aftermath of hurricane irma. these boats pushed up onshore near the iconic monty's in coconut grove. people have been coming out here to check out the damage including their own boats. they're happy they themselves are okay and now they have to deal with rebuilding the material parts of their lives, but that's a lot easier than rebuilding your physical life. we are waiting to hear from the white house. the white house briefing moments away. we are waiting to hear from florida governor rick scott to get an assessment of where we stand in florida. we're particularly interested about the florida keys and not to mention how jacksonville is

doing all of the way up the coast experiencing historic floods. information has been coming out in dribs and drabs all day. there's a lot of concern because some parts have been unreachable. our bill weir rode out the storm in key largo. you saw him do amazing reporting over the last few days. he fileded this report to give us a sense of some of the damage he's just beginning to see. watch this. >> reporter: we're seeing a lot of mobile homes that have been torn apart. here is a power line. be careful, rod. this is some of the most dangerous hazards is live electrical wires. you can hear them buzzing as we go around and this is just one canal, a sample of, you know, this is a good -- i would say 300 yards from the coastline and a lot of the debris just got pounded over here by the winds, the waves pushing piles of rocks up against doors over on that side of the community. the good news is we get word

from officials down in key west. no fatalities reported miraculously. it's amazing, but they're worried about the humanitarian assistance they're going to need. a lot of elderly and infirmed that couldn't evacuate. they need food and they need fuel and they have a desal nation plant and a generator, so they can get by. >> that's bill weir in the florida keys again. the storm made first landfall on the u.s. mainland in the keys and they took that big turn and made second landfall right on marco island, a tiny little island with beautiful houses, but very fragile. when we come back, we'll have a live report to get an early damage assessment from marco island. stay with us.

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all right. john berman here in miami. brooke baldwin is in new york. i'm surrounded by the aftermath of hurricane irma. 6 million people without power in the state of florida alone and that doesn't include georgia and south carolina now. it's doing some of its worst damage yet flooding charleston as we speak. the first landfall in the continental united states on the florida keys and then made the turn on to marco island, a direct hit. the eye wall made a direct hit on marco island and overnight and early this morning there was a lot of concern. how did that island survive? did it make it through? our ed lavandera right now on marco island and the last time i saw you i think was here miami. oh, the places you've gone since then and now to where the storm made its first impact on the west coast of florida. >> reporter: yeah. it's been a wild 48 hours since we last saw each other, john. we are actually in a little

fishing village called goodland just east of marco island. we were able to get on to marco island. that island has been reopened and residents that were there, 17,000 or so able to get back on. that island withstood the power and the fury of hurricane irma rather well, but it is a different story in goodland, florida, which is a small little fishing village at the very bottom of florida and the edge of the everglades and the gulf of mexico, and this is a small little village that just took a clobbering from hurricane irma. this is very typical of the scene that we have seen here on the island as we've driven around is surprisingly, we've also spoken with a number of people who have -- who rode out the storm here on marco island. we just interviewed a man by the name of dustin shepard whose home is up on 15-foot pilings, and he said it was one of the scariest experiences he'd ever endured.

he talked about seven feet of water, storm surge rising upunderneath his home. part of his roof coming off in the middle of the storm and it was at that point whether or not his home would withstand the winds that here in the marco island area the strongest gusts reached up to 140 miles an hour. so you can see the damage that we see consistently through this community, a massive tree here falling over on to this home. we've seen a lot of this -- a lot of this throughout the small streets and the canals here in this area in the small fishing village of goodland, florida, john? >> all right. ed lavandera on the ground there in the streets where the people need the most help right now. thanks so much for that perspective, ed, and we hope that it does get there soon. thank you for your work. i want to go up the west coast of florida to bradenton, florida and diane gallagher is there to give us a look of how things are progressing. diane? >> we'll go live now. john, we are in bradenton in

palma sola shores and i want to give you a look. we'll let you drive and let you see on both sides of the vehicle where we have the roaming coverage vehicles and the 360 view of the damage. and you can see the strong winds ripped off a carports and they tore down roofs. this is a retirement community. 55 and older, living here. we spoke to someone this morning who got out. they said it wouldn't be safe because the bay is right behind us. these are basically on the, right there on the cusp of the water and so they got out. no one was staying here, but he came to see his property. his was okay and some of their neighbors and the roofs completely ripped off, john and almost as if a can opener just opened these homes up. you can see that the damage is almost like a tornado. we've seen to where some homes have a lot of damage. some homes don't have too much whatsoever, and we're seeing this throughout bradenton.

at this point we're seeing a lot of down trees and roughly half the county does not have power and i will say the police chief and i'll get out here and walk so you can see. i will say that the police chief said this is almost like a really bad summer storm, that this didn't seem like a hurricane and my producer will have to stop the vehicle so i can walk out and show you just how substantial some of this damage is and a lot of the roofs in this area and if we can look here and we see at this point. as i come through here, john, some of these and i just lost my hat for a second because it is windy and the rain is starting to come in here again, but you can see that some of these actual carports besides this one being bent, this is metal completely bent, the carport of some of these have come over to their neighbors. so we are here in their neighbor's area. some of these parts and aluminum, that's why it reminded me so much of a tornado. i'm sure you covered them, as well, it didn't seem like one

large gust of wind. it almost seems like you have shattered windows that have just ripped off of the sun room area coming down this part right here. now you can see the person who lives here. her little angels and her cross in her window didn't move whatsoever at this point. the chairs are still there. the tables are still there, but the door to get in, you walk this way, so the door to get in didn't open. no walls. nothing else around here, completely ripped up some of the siding like this. the woman we knocked on the door and my producer rob knocked on the door of this woman's house. not here, we are told. she didn't answer. her neighbor said that he did not believe that she was here, but this is something that really, you think about the fact that many people realize they dodged a bullet and a man named gary told me i was expecting to come to nothing and i was not expecting to see anything when i came here. i thought my whole house would be gone and while he recognizes that what his neighbor is

dealing with here is devastating and devastation, john, they thought it was going to be so much worse. so they have a lot to deal with. there's going to be expensive and a long bit of recovery, but it is a blessing for some of them that it was not worse than it is now. >> one of the questions is the people who got to shelters. what is next for them? when is it safe to go home? when can they try to get to their normal lives. they want to check on their houses, too. we'll be right back. for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you...

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sarah huckabee sanders for the press briefing. >> the lives of those survivors and families were changed forever on that day and our country has never been the same from the imaginable evil of terrorism reached our shores. in response to the attacks we are memorializing today the department of homeland security was created and giving a vital mission. securing our nation from the many threats we face from counter terrorism and border security to disaster preparedness and relief. which we know all too well in light of fema's work in hurricanes harvey and irma. the men and women in the storms embody the spirit under which dhs was created. and saved as many as 20 people. like isaac, the first responders for hurricanes irma and harvey are running directly into danger to save lives and serve our nation. i hope that every american can take comfort in the fact that in

the face of unbelievable tragedy this country has always come together to heal, protect, and the police officers who rushed into 9/11 to the first responders on the ground in florida to the united states virgin islands and puerto rico. fema through the national and regional response coordination centers in liaison to the national hurne center continues to actively monitor the track of hurricane irma and support local authorities responding to the damage the storm has already caused. i'd like to bring up, tom bosser, the home larpd security and counter terrorism adviser for issues related to hurricanes irma and harvey before i take questions. as always, he'll make an opening statement and take questions and i'll be back up to answer further questions. thanks. >> good afternoon. it's a somber day today, and i

and sarah and others are honored to join the president at the pentagon in a moment of silence on the south lawn, as well. i would note that president trump continued a long tradition of presidents since 9/11 to receive a counter terrorism briefing this morning in the oval office from his intelligence community, from his director of national counter terrorism center for myself and others on the team. the purpose of that is to give the president a sense of the terrorist threat that exists globally and to the homeland and give us a sense of what we're doing about it and make sheer we're comfortable with the posture. as i said we don't have any current, active threats against the homeland to our knowledge and that's a good news story for today. let me move into a quick thought. before i do it, though, sarah noted that we created the department of homeland security in the wake of 9/11. i would note that the government engaged in a massive reorganization of its structures and efforts to create a counter

terrorism center to create a department of homeland security which you will see now marshal resources combat and command in the united states of united states and cyber command which you've seen recently president trump elevate to a full combat and command. so we've marshalled our resources and organized them in a way to confront the threat of terrorism and also to organize ourselves in a way that will allow us to respond to any event from a man made hazard to an unfortunate terrorist attack, but also to a hurricane. so let me see if i can today talk to you about what we've done. i believe harvey, as i said earlier was the best integrated, unified, joint, federal, local, state response effort that our country has seen in its history. i continue to stand by that. we have 700,000 in individual assistance in the greater houston and south texasiary. governor abbott continues to

demonstrate leadership and president trump continues to work with him and direct his cabinet to not lose focus on the people of texas. with respect to hurricane irma, as you know, it's a tropical depression and it does not mean it's not a dangerous storm as you will see from reporting jacksonville is suffering what has been called some of the worst flooding it has seen in 100 years and so the category might be reduced, but the effects on jacksonville, for instance, when you combine storm surge and wind might now replicate that of a category 3 storm even though it's a tropical depression. as that flooding is ongoing, we have life-saving and life-sustaining operations under way and we're prayerful that there are not people right now trapped by floodwaters. the president spoke this morning to the governor of the u.s. virgin islands. governor mat expressed and i join that call, his thankfulness to our administration's help to the u.s. government providing such a rapid response and an ongoing response, i would add. if i could on that, i'll speak

to it later, but the mobilization of our military in response to the storms in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands is the largest ever mobilization of our military in naval and marine operation and we now have an air force carrier deployed in this effort. this is the first-ever, as well. so we have the largest flotilla operation in the nation's history to help not only the people of puerto rico, people of the u.s. virgin islands and st. martin and other non-u.s. island affected and the people of florida. with respect to puerto rico, the president spoke to the governor of puerto rico this morning around 11:30 a.m., and they discussed similarly how happy they were with the federal response to their needs the governor communicated that they still have a large, island-wide power outage problem that we're addressing as soon as we can and then florida, if i can speak to

florida, i think governor scott has demonstrated outstanding leadership. the storm is still hitting the united states and georgia and south carolina and it will move into tennessee and maybe north carolina, as we see the storm progress. governor scott has at this stage begun conducting overflight surveys of the keys and it looks like to the north and east of key west the storms there took the islands there took the largest brunt of the storm. i'll be able to speak to that when we take questions. if i can come back to 9/11, the lesson we learned that day among others not only does evil exist, but good people taking action can confront that. what i've been assured and reassured about over the last 24 hours is how many good people are taking action. that's my lesson for today. i'd like to take questions now.

john? >> in the immediate aftermath of harvey, the federal response priority was to rescue people who were trapped by the enormous flooding. in the state of florida, what's the priority for the federal government? >> there are a number of pray orits, right now the priorities is life saving, life sustaining and the keys are taking a considerable amount of attention right now, but what you will see in florida and more broadly speaking is a comparative matter, houston and harvey, and what we have now is a large scale area of operations and what we're trying to do is marshal the resources where they're needed and it's a prioritization effort and we're worried about flooding, housing, debris and power restoration and it's a function of access to fuel. refined fuel. as you will see the next days and weeks play out, we will clear debris from roadways so people can gain re-entry. right now the message is not to rush re-entry. there are conditions downed

electric lines and flood conditions and problems that would be compounded by your re-entry so listen to your local officials not just about evacuation and how to stagger your re-entry, there is a life and safety reason. there's the priority set. eventually we'll move into issues about recovery and issues and so forth. >> what are the doing on the fuel front? >> on the fuel front, what the federal government is doing in the three or four days building up to this event was to get out of the way and by that i mean we waived regulations and we waived rules and we waived the jones act restrictions to free up additional capacity. florida is a uniquely postured state in the way it receives refined fuel. it's not part of the larger pipeline system throughout the country. it receives fuel by ship tanker. those ship tankers then link into intermodal sites where they fill up trucks and trucks distribute. we'll clear those pathways and assess those three ports where

those tankers dock and make sure they're not damaged and florida power and light and others and the nuclear power fas ils, duj energy and others will continue with their professionalism and they'll bring that back up as soon as possible. >> do we have any agreements in place with the private sector to contribute to the response and the recovery, talking about costco, home depot, walmart, so that we don't have to deplete the disaster relief fund as a public service? >> no. absolutely. first there is a partnership in terms of coordination where the private sector entities are built in to our coordinating centers so they can understand what we're doing so we can prioritize the facilities and the safety of their workforce, but secondly, it's the baseline doctrine that we would rather reopen those stores than continue providing food, water and temporary shelter to people. it's not in the course of regular operating business and

it's not routine and something we can easily sustain and it's better to re-open the doors as fast as possible. >> the administration saw a connection between climate change and homeland security and that the frequency and intensity of powerful storms like harvey and irma can pose a problem for future administrations. you can have a fema budget that can't keep up with the demand when you have powerful storms hitting the country. is that something that you think this administration should take a look at? we know the president pauled out of the paires climate accord. is this administration giving the issue of pause when it comes to homeland security? >> i was here in 2004 with the hurricanes that hit florida. what's important right now is to make sure the response is there and it's beyond my ability to analyze right now. we continue to take seriously the climate change, want the cause of it and the things we

observe and the rising floodwaters and one inch every ten years and what i said from the podium the other day and what president trump remains committeded to is making sure that federal dollars aren't used to rebuild things that will be in harm's way later and will be in the predictable floods that we'll see and that has to do with analysis and changing conditions along eroding shorelines and in lashd and flood control projects. so. >> just to follow up on that, when you see three category 4 hurricanes all on the same map at the same time, does the thought occur to you that, geez, maybe there is somethinging to this climate change thing and its connection to powerful hurricanes or do you separate the two and say boy, these are a lot of hurricanes coming our way. >> there is a cyclical nature to the hurricane seasons and i thank the scientists for their forecast on this particular one. they were dead on that this would be a stronger and more powerful hurricane season with

slightly more than average larger storms and we'll have to do a trend analysis at a later date. >> to follow up on just the budget. what kind of press? you have two major hurricanes strikes, so what pressure on the federal government's budget have these natural disasters put and how are we going react to it? will there be programs cut or reassessments in order to rebuild the infrastructure and it will take several years. >> the president and director mulvaney started the process and discussion at this point. that was the nature of the appropriation that we saw and the second appropriation that we will see at the end of next month subject to the regular course of order and in the fiscal year, we'll ask for a third separation for the purpose of rebuilding and we'll do it smartly for the previous question and this is a disaster relief fund issue and it's funded differently i and i have every believe that that man

would lead to a balanced budget, but not to get that are far into politics and just outside my lane now. >> just to follow up. at any point in time, as you take a look at this issue, is there any chance that fema, the epa and some of the places that were cut will see more money go into their budget? >> think that we'll put money in as money is needed to address the need. what you see here is the same trend that i alluded to earlier, and we also had to elevate the cap on flood insurance and we'll probably end up having to do that again here. you'll see, though, over a longer span of time even the flood insurance budget is red and black, red and black based on claims and premiums. >> i don't have a prediction for you. >> middle. >> i asked you two weeks ago, and i asked you a housing thing and i wanted to know if you had

an update on housing now that we have harvey and irma and whatever else is on the way. can you give us a sense of locating housing for those that were misplaced. >> locating housing in texas? >> housing in texas, for those who need housing be it texas, be it outside of the state for the moment. >> i'll answer both. in texas, going back to praising the governor. he's done what we have seen in the pa past. he's owning the task force that he's initiated and he's a person in charge of the long-term recovery and there other solutions. some of them are short leffed and you'll find tell solutions and people can stay in their home and it's been flooded when the driwall is ripped out and they'll have to find a place to live temporarily and we try to find hotel solutions. fema has created a manufactured housing solution where they will put a travel trailer where you can liv